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Making the Shift from Job Board to Career Portal

Making the Shift from Job Board to Career Portal

There’s been plenty of speculation about the motive behind LinkedIn’s recent acquisition of the online learning company Lynda.com. Some opine that it’s the beginning of a move into a more broadly defined talent acquisition and management company. Others see it as a play to get into more of the revenue streams in HR generally.

Both are plausible explanations, but both also ignore LinkedIn’s roots. From the beginning, the company has always focused on the individual – on facilitating first their networking, then their employment, and now on their need to be a work-in-progress. In other words, the Lynda.com acquisition is a move upstream from job searching to career self-management, from job board to career portal.

What does that mean for other employment sites?

In the vein of always borrowing what’s best from your competitor, the move may well map out a potentially valuable strategic redirection for job boards. Since less than one-fifth of the talent pool is ever actively in transition at any one time, it provides a way to attract the other four-fifths who aren’t looking for a job, but are often interested in advancing themselves in their field. Advancement can mean moving to a better job, of course, but it can also involve adding professional skills and knowledge, so offering such personal development can be both a differentiator and a traffic builder.

Moreover, melding job search with personal development doesn’t require an acquisition (ala LinkedIn) – it can just as effectively be accomplished with a partnership or joint venture between a job board and an academic institution. Unlike the fee-based ads run for .edu institutions in the past, this strategy provides the site with courseware it can offer to its visitors in exchange for posting such ads. The result is a win-win: the school acquires a marketing arm (or even a student stream) for its courses, and the job board is able to provide a broader range of services to the working men and women who are its users. Now obviously, that strategy won’t work for every segment of the workforce, but in many fields, the convenience of a one-stop shop for job search AND career advancement might well be a compelling value proposition.

3-Day IAEWS Fall Congress Extravaganza

This year’s IAEWS Fall Congress is a 3-day event unlike any other you’ve seen in our industry.

It begins on October 15, 2015 with The Stars of Recruiting Innovation™, a red carpet awards gala for the 2015 Recruiting Service Innovation Awards. This celebration will be held in the same venue as the world famous Addys – the Recruitment Advertising Awards – and feature an Oscars-like announcement of the Innovators and Innovations in our industry. And later that night, there will probably even be an After Party or two or three as the winners celebrate. Hey, we’re talking Vegas, so you never know. So, whether you are competing for a 2015 ReSI or not, this is one event YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS.

And then, the IAEWS Fall Congress, itself, will be held on October 16-17, 2015 in the same location as HR Tech, one of the largest conferences in our industry. It will feature more opportunities for networking and doing deals, more speakers you’ve not heard before and more outside the box venues for not one, but two cocktail receptions. There will be Special Interest Group discussions, table top exhibits by leading vendors in our space, and some cool surprises. All-in-all, it will be THE conference of the year in our industry. The Non-Procrastinator discount registration rate is now available and saves you $100, so don’t delay – sign up today!

You don’t have to attend both events, but why wouldn’t you? It’s a 3-day celebration of what’s best about our industry. For more information and to register for The Stars of Recruiting Innovation™ and the IAEWS Fall Congress, please clickhere.

Association Career Center Workshop

The IAEWS and the American Society of Association Executives will be offering a free, half-day workshop for association professionals who manage and operate their organization’s career center. Entitled “How to Run a Successful Association Career Center on a Shoestring”, it will be held on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at the JW Marriott, Jr. – ASAE Conference Center from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.

The program will include:

a review of the 2015 IAEWS-Job Board Doctor Global Survey focusing on the key take-aways for associations;

a panel of association professionals who are successfully operating career centers on a shoestring; and

networking with others who are juggling multiple assignments, tight budgets and lean staffs.

The goal is to provide each attendee with a handful of ideas they can take back and immediately implement to improve both the operation and financial performance of their career center.

Registration for the workshop is now open. To sign up, please call the IAEWS Executive Director Peter Weddle at 203-964-1888.

And please, spread the word. Make sure your friends and colleagues in the association community know about the program.

Are You in the Running?

The User’s Choice Awards are a unique accolade in our industry. The winners aren’t selected by pundits and bloggers, but by the job seekers, employers and recruiters who actually use the sites. Think of it as crowdsourcing the best employment sites on the Web.

Each year, a social media campaign invites job seekers, employers and recruiters to cast their ballots for the best employment sites at a public polling station on the Web. The 30 sites with the most votes at the end of the year are recognized as User’s Choice Awards winners – the elite of our industry.

There’s no cost to participate in the competition, and the credibility and stature that come from winning is priceless. So make sure you site gets the recognition it deserves, put it on the 2015 User’s Choice Awards ballot. Send your request to peter@weddles.com.

To see this year’s winners of the User’s Choice Awards, please clickhere.

Who Will Go Home With a ReSI?

Innovator of the Year – the individuals and organizations that have done the most to optimize the recruiter’s experience.

AND

Innovation of the Year – the products and services that have empowered recruiters to perform at their peak.

To learn more about The Stars of Recruiting Innovation™ – the October 15, 2015 gala awards ceremony to recognize the Innovators and Innovations in talent acquisition – click here. http://www.employmentwebsites.org/2015-iaews-spring-fall-congress